The Chinatown Justice Project (CJP) and The Chinatown Tenant Union continued their efforts to combat gentrification and displacement of the Chinatown community this summer, and were featured in two local papers. Navigate over to our media page to learn more about how CJP created a game to educate the community about gentrification,and about CAAAV's role in a City-wide network fighting gentrification.

Also, on July 2, 2007, the Chinatown Tenant Union gave public comments on the City of New York's Economic Development Corporation's plan to develop the waterfront of Manhattan near Chinatown. While development and improvement of the area is certainly needed and desirable, the CTU demands more investigation into whether the proposed development will lead to primary and secondary displacement of residents and small businesses in the area. Click here to read the comments.

On August 11, 2007, CAAAV Received the Social Action Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems, an community of scholars, practitioners, advocates and students dedicated to the study of vital social problems. To learn more about the award, please click here.

To the over-three hundred friends, allies and supporters who attended our 20th anniversary celebration, Our Roots Grow Deep, on Friday, May 18th, we would like to express our deepest appreciation. We were deeply touched by the incredible turn-out and tremendous show of support; in one evening, CAAAV received pledges totaling over $20,000! Thanks to you, our event was an amazing success. We hope you were as inspired by our speakers, performers, and members as we were by your presence and gestures of appreciation.

With your support, CAAAV continues its community organizing and movement-building efforts with the Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee community in the Bronx, low-income tenants and youth in Manhattan's Chinatown, and Asian immigrant women working in low-wage service industries city-wide. Your support also ensures that we will be able to continue with our movement-building alliance and coalition work locally, nationally and internationally - most notably as we continue to build for the first U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta (www.ussf2007.org) which will take place from June 27 to July 1. We thank you for taking action, for joining us in this critical work, and for being a part of CAAAV's ever-growing community.

Please visit our website again in the near future for a recap of the evening which will include photos!

Click here to read a letter from CAAAV's 20th Anniversary Benefit and Host Committees!

On April 10, 2007, Chinatown tenants celebrated a victory against their landlord, who had been cited with over 500 housing code violations and subjected the tenants to some of the worst living conditions in the city. The victory came after tenants, with the assistance of CAAAV and the Chinatown Tenants Union, organized a rent strike and negotiated with the landlord. The landlord has agreed to grant rent abatements for the tenants, renew leases, and make regular and timely repairs. For more information, see the press release here.

A special 20-year anniversary issue of the CAAAV Voice has been published. For our friends and supporters on our mailing list, you should be receiving a copy in the mail soon. A PDF version of the CAAAV Voice is also available here.

You can also find a PDF version of last year's issue of the Voice on that page as well.

If you are not currently on CAAAV's mailing list, and would like to be added, please send an email to justice@caaav.org with your request.

Each CAAAV program area (Chinatown Justice Project, Women Workers Project, Youth Leadership Project) chose a day for members to call 311 to flood their lines. CAAAV wanted to test the timeliness of getting a translator, as well as the quality of the translation. At the November Chinatown Tenant’s Union meeting, there was a discussion about how tenants can get repairs and the importance of calling 311. Three tenants shared their stories of how they have changed their attitude towards calling 311 and feel more confident to do so. The youth then split into groups with the tenants to go over their repair issues and called 311 together.

*311 is New York City's phone number for government information and non-emergency services.

The Chinatown Justice Project and CAAAV legal advocates decided to organize the two buildings since work has already been done with a few of the apartments in these buildings around evictions and lack of services. CJP decided to create a campaign out of the organizing of this building, since a few of the tenants are active in the organization and one of our youth members lives there. There have already been two building-wide meetings where many of the Chinese tenants seem excited that we’re there and angry with the landlord for discriminating against them and ignoring their requests for repairs. Please click HERE for the press release.

Women Workers' Project Members hope to close with victory within 6 months. Our common goals to move forward with her case: (1) Win Justice for Analisa; (2) Shame the employers; (3) Support Analisa and other domestic workers who are suffering to speak out!; (4) Use the media to get the truth out. Our demands are: (1) Justice for Analisa; (2) Damages for suffering; (3) Public apology for the abuse; (4) Legalization for all ; (5) Pass the Bill of Rights in NY State. WWP and the legal teams from New York University’s Immigrant Rights Clinic (NYUIRC) and the Urban Justice Center have been meeting for months to make sure the case against Analisa’s employers is strong. A formal complaint was filed at the Federal court on November 17, and WWP held a press conference at one of the upper Eastside parks. Many workers witnessed Analisa speaking publicly about the abuse and suffering she experienced while working for Dr. Jacobs and Dr. Scheiner. Some workers who were listening to her story couldn’t believe that she was mistreated while others admitted that they also experienced some type of abuse.

Members of CAAAV and Domestic Workers United listened to speakers including our very own leaders, Carolyn, Beatriz, and Marilyn, Roger Toussaint, President of TWU Local 100 and Bill Fletcher (educator and long-time labor activist), participated in small group discussions, and received health screenings and other services. The event was exciting, as it brought together new members and old, and members led almost every aspect of the day. We hope that next year's numbers will be even stronger. In addition, the video project is coming along; with almost 150 hours of footage, we finally have enough good footage to finish a paper cut (a script of the whole video). DWU is excited for another year in the fight for respect and recognition for domestic workers.